Tag: Technology

Taking mushrooms straight from the parking lot into the kitchen is a practical solution. Along similar lines, a startup in the Vancouver area is currently developing a stand-alone smart system for vertical farming planned as franchise. Its USP? The fact that it’s for small buildings specifically and helps owners grow fruit, vegetables and herbs in their underused spaces such...

Cars could be protected from theft by a safe-like coding system. Anyone who works in public places would welcome the chance to leave their laptop unattended. To use the toilet for instance. Research shows that worldwide around 10% of laptops are stolen. Enter a US startup and its easy-to-install solution. A mounting arm is taped to the underside of...

Smart buoys are preventing ships from colliding with whales. Normally, container ships and tankers are directed to reach their destinations as quickly as possible. In the harbour, however, they're at anchor for a long time. Enter a British startup aiming to bring all those involved together on its independent platform in order to reduce CO2 emissions promptly. Using pre-specified...

Some glasses automatically adjust focus between near and distant objects. Many birds can see for miles while still recognising their immediate environment. Their retinas have a deep hollow, meaning they are more sensitive to light. With an additional fourth photoreceptor, they can also perceive blue, red, green and UV light. Inspired by this phenomenon, a Korean research team has...

Animals don’t have to die for exotic leather products. It is, however, perfectly legal to use tusks from extinct mammoths for making luxury wood carvings, chess figures or jewellery. Since this type of ivory is mostly extracted from permafrost regions or near Polar seas, many elephants fall victim to the illegal ivory trade. It is impossible to make out...

A robot shapes dresses. If we ourselves don’t feel in great shape, perhaps because we are experiencing stress, a special ball can help us calm down. Now, thanks to a design student’s award-winning concept, items of clothing could soon fulfil the same function. Inflatable elements of various sizes are sewn into the upper part of her garment. Where exactly...

Sustainable background music makes most things easier. Even cleaning. And it could be better yet. A Belgian startup is using spent cooking oil and food waste to produce environmentally-friendly cleaning products. With the help of yeast organisms isolated from bumble bee honey, potato peel and vegetable scraps from the supermarket are fermented in a patented process. The resulting biosurfactants...

Insoles with fungal spores help prevent bacteria and foot diseases. Now a Canadian-based startup is also using mushroom spores - to produce large quantities of protein-rich, plant-based food. First step: extract the sugar from agricultural waste. The sugar serves as nourishment for a teaspoonful of spores from different edible mushrooms, which are then fermented in large steel tanks. Next,...